Thinking, Visual Thinking, and Shape Understanding

Abstract

Thinking is the process that is connected with mental activities of our brain. We often say 'I think that...' to indicate that our judgment is the result of thinking process. In the past thinking was highly praised and in some cultures thinkers (philosophers) had a very big influence on the development of culture and life of people. Philosophers played an important role in the development of the philosophical thinking and understanding of the real-world phenomena. Cartesian statement 'cogito ergo sum' refers to thinking and it indicates the ontological status of the thinking process. Today scientists from different areas of sciences try to replace the philosophical investigation by speculative theoretical construction of scientific theories. Also philosophers of science tried to reduce philosophical thinking into the speculation about scientific description of the world. However, there are still questions that could not be answered or even formulated in the term of the today's scientific theoretical concepts, models, or theories. This book is an attempt to show that it is possible to build the thinking and understanding machines. When there is possibility for replacement of materialistically oriented 'thinkers' by thinking machines, the metaphysical problems could be only solved by thinkers who are able to understand the essence of our human nature.